To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.buildOpen lugnet.build in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Building / 2458
2457  |  2459
Subject: 
Re: RCX Controlled Air Compressor Tester
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics, lugnet.build
Date: 
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:10:55 GMT
Viewed: 
175 times
  
In lugnet.robotics, Chris Phillips writes:
> In lugnet.robotics, Ralph Hempel writes:
> > I really wish there was a way to control pneumatics with Mindstorms....
> 
> Actually, I've been thinking about this for awhile, and I think there's an
> "easy" way to switch pneumatics under motor control.  The rubber air hoses can
> be pinched shut with a reasonably small amount of force.  It seems to me that
> you could use a cam on an axle to open or close one (or several) air hoses by
> turning a motor to a particular angle.
> 
> You'd probably also need a master shutoff valve (on a separate motor?) so that
> you could shut off the air pressure while you rotate the cam shaft to the
> desired position.  After the cams are set, you'd open the master valve to
> actuate the pistons.
> 
> If you wanted to be stingy with RCX inputs and outputs, you could use a
> progressive gear ratio setup to control any number of cams "independently" off
> of a single motor.  And you could use one of my favorite motor-saving
> mechanisms, Michael Powell's directional transmission, to control the master
> valve when the motor turns in one direction and the cam shaft when it turns in
> the other direction.
> 
> OK, so you still need at least one motor output and probably a rotation sensor
> input to control this thing.  And a battery box and another motor to run the
> compressor.  But once you've got that, you could probably do some fairly
> complex switching to control the pneumatics from the RCX.
> 
> Of course I haven't tried this, but maybe someone out there will...  If so,
> please come back and tell us all how you make out.

I just read some of the earlier messages in this thread.  I think Michael
Powell deserves a medal for having not one, but two of his Lego designs get
mentioned independently of one another in a single discussion.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: RCX Controlled Air Compressor Tester
 
(...) Actually, I've been thinking about this for awhile, and I think there's an "easy" way to switch pneumatics under motor control. The rubber air hoses can be pinched shut with a reasonably small amount of force. It seems to me that you could use (...) (27 years ago, 29-Sep-99, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.build)

68 Messages in This Thread:























Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR